1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to residential and small business management systems, and more particularly, to integrated management solutions having networking, security, automation, monitoring, energy management, web-enabled applications, IP devices and remote access capabilities.
2. Description of Related Art
Advances in consumer electronics, home networking, network-enabled devices and wireless technologies have brought significant new capabilities to home and small business owners. While these devices perform everything from high speed Internet access to video surveillance to automation to digital entertainment, users are confronted with islands of technology and multiple applications to learn and manage. It would be beneficial to integrate these devices and systems into a single, easy-to-use platform.
Conventional security systems, home automation, energy management and other stand-alone systems, use a written intelligence device that sits on the premises of every residence using the service. This conventional system generally communicates with the user via the user's PC, or it connects to a service provider's gateway so that the user then has to connect to the provider's servers, which then basically mirrors what is going on in the house. In the case of a PC or automation control the server that manages and operates the system is dedicated on-site. It would be beneficial to provide a monitoring & control platform that manages the operations of multiple devices and systems at one or multiple residence locations, and provides reliable remote access via multiple end-user devices.